The present invention relates generally to a method of assigning work to customer service agents, and more particularly, to a method of initially assigning, and then, if necessary, reassigning inbound on-line customer requests to Internet self-service agents.
The Internet is increasingly used to provide xe2x80x9cself-servicexe2x80x9d to customers and users. Users often use the Internet to obtain specific product or service information, and to find answers to questions or solutions to various problems. As is typical with other types of self-service operations, such as voice response used in telephone systems often referred to as Automatic Call Distributors (ACD), users using an Internet self-service application are first encouraged to obtain information on-line before interacting with a human or intelligent/robotic agent. When human assistance is needed, a user may compose a question or issue a request and then the self service application routes the question or request to a human agent. The human agent typically accepts the work (e.g., opens a xe2x80x9ccasexe2x80x9d), composes a response (or initiates some other related work) thus resolving or not resolving the open case, then finally closes the case or transfers the case to a different agent.
This type of Internet self-service application can be referred to as an Internet Automatic Work Distributor (IAWD) mechanism. The IAWD that initially xe2x80x9cassignsxe2x80x9d the work (i.e., the case) to an agent is primitive compared to routing mechanisms found in telephony Automatic Call Distributors. For example, the concept of xe2x80x9cbusyxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cnot readyxe2x80x9d as is found in ACDs is typically not found in IAWDs. In contrast to ACDs, the self-service application simply assigns work to the agent since there are no users on line, and thus, no users to put xe2x80x9con holdxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94instead, work is queued or assigned to a specific agent. Therefore, an agent may be assigned several unopened cases, even if the agent is already working a case. Over time, work may become unequally distributed across a group of agents. For example, if an agent""s current case takes an inordinate length of time to complete, other high priority cases assigned to the agent are left waiting, whereas another agent in the same agent group may at that moment be completing a current case and only have lower priority cases waiting.
Even if the self-service application could initially distribute work fairly, for example, to minimize the time taken to service a high priority request, over time, work can still become unequally distributed across the group of agents for several reasons. First, an agent may work faster than other agents, thus allowing the agent to finish servicing his or her current request (i.e., complete the work assigned) more quickly than the other agents. Second, work assigned to an agent may be less complex relative to the work assigned to other agents, thus allowing the agent to complete the work more quickly than the other agents. Third, an agent may finish his or her work and have low priority work waiting to be serviced, while high priority work is assigned to a different agent (or agents) currently working on a case.
In telephony applications such as call centers, predictive outbound systems are commonly used. The outbound system generates outbound calls, predicting that when the called party answers the call, an agent will be available to service the call. The system then dynamically assigns the agent to the answered call.
A need exists to initially assign inbound work to an agent based on a dynamically generated prediction of how soon the work can be completed by the agent to expedite completion of the work. There is a further need to proactively and periodically reassign work to agents after the work is initially assigned to the agents to maintain an equitable distribution of the work across the agents.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to expedite servicing of an inbound request by initially assigning the request to an agent based on a dynamic prediction of how soon the request can be serviced by the agent.
Another object of the present invention is to maintain an equitable distribution of work across a group of agents by proactively and periodically reassigning work within a group to other agents within the group, after the work is initially assigned to agents in the group.
According to one aspect of the present invention, to exploit the Internet, a Predictive IAWD, (Pre-IAWD) initially assigns inbound work, such as a user request, to an agent in a group of agents based on a dynamically generated prediction of how soon the work can be completed. The Pre-IAWD initially assigns (queues) the work to the agent having the highest likelihood of completing the work first in the group of agents, to expedite the completion of the work. The Pre-IAWD predicts which agent is most likely to complete the work first using an algorithm based on dynamically measured factors, such as a current work load of each agent, a priority of the work, and an experience level and skill set of each agent. Also, high priority work is initially assigned to an agent ahead of low priority work already assigned to the agent to expedite the high priority work.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a Proactive IAWD (Pro-IAWD) reassigns queued work (initially assigned to agents by the Pre-IAWD) to agents based on a set of predetermined rules, to maintain an equitable workload across the agent population. Advantageously, the Pre-IAWD prevents excessive work loading of an agent while other agents have less work. Also, high priority work is proactively reassigned to agents based on their current work loadsxe2x80x94instead of solely on their initial work loads (as determined at the time work was initially assigned by the Pre-IAWD). The Pre- and Pro-IAWDs work as functional features of a web site and interact with the site""s Internet self-service resources and its Internet Automatic Work Distributor (IAWD).
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by a computer-implemented method of distributing on-line client requests to human and/or robotic Internet service agents. A request is received from a client. An initial agent is selected that is most likely to finish servicing the request first from a group of agents. The request is assigned to the initial agent. In a pro-active mode, an assigned request is reassigned from a first agent to a second agent selected from the group of agents if it is determined that the second agent can complete the request sooner than the first agent.
The foregoing and other objects of the invention are achieved by a computer architecture including receiving a request from a client. An initial agent is selected using selecting means that is most likely to finish servicing the request first from a group of agents. The request is assigned by assigning means to the initial agent. An assigned request is reassigned using reassigning means from a first agent to a second agent selected from the group of agents.
The foregoing and other objects of the invention are achieved by an article including a computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of sequences of instructions, the plurality of sequences of instructions including sequences of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of receiving a request from a client. The processor then selects an initial agent most likely to finish servicing the request first from a group of agents and assigns the request to the initial agent. The processor then reassigns an assigned request from a first agent to a second agent selected from the group of agents.
The foregoing and other objects of the invention are achieved by a computer system including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to receiving a request from a client. The processor then selects an initial agent most likely to finish servicing the request first from a group of agents and assigns the request to the initial agent. The processor reassigns an assigned request from a first agent to a second agent selected from the group of agents.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein the preferred embodiments of the invention are shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description thereof are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.